The Only Prayer You Need

Gratitude is powerful. Finding anything to be grateful for is the quickest way to raise yourself up out of funk. Gratitude is powerful. It can be a force of positive personal transformation. That’s not just hyped-up self-help, hocus-pocus there is real science to back it up. The University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center has published research that shows people who "practice gratitude report fewer symptoms of illness, including depression, more optimism and happiness, stronger relationships, ..." (Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude)

When I first started practicing gratitude it didn't come easily to me. I was in such a depressed state of mind it was hard to see any good in my world. But I wanted so desperately to change my life I was willing to give it a try. So I started looking for anything that made me remotely happy; the smell of coffee when I got to work or the fleck of a favorite color in someone's shirt. Once I recognized something to be grateful for I would simply say "Thank you". The funny thing is the more I looked for things to be grateful for, the more I found. The more I found to be grateful for, the more I looked.

In time I enhanced my gratitude practice by writing down three things I was grateful for at the end of the day. The gratitude journaling got me to start looking throughout the day for things to be grateful for, so I could write them down at the end of the day. Again, the more I looked for things to be grateful for, the more I found.

Of course, developing a daily gratitude practice hasn't been the only thing that has improved the way I experience my life, but it sure has helped. There is so much to be grateful in this life and it isn't hard to find. Thank you Life!